Nic Nemeth (Dolph Ziggler)
WWE’s former Dolph Ziggler first stepped foot in a ring with John Cena in 2008 in a multi-man tag match on Monday Night Raw. His first singles match with Cena came two years later. In all, Cena and Nemeth met in 91 matches including dark matches and house shows. They wrestled against each other at eight PPV/PLEs (including Royal Rumbles) and wrestled either against or alongside each other 23 times on Raw or SmackDown. Completely random fact but two of those matches involved Vickie Guerrero where she teamed with Nemeth on one occasion and Cena on another.
Their first memorable feud came in 2012 when Nemeth, along with Raw managing supervisor Vickie Guerrero, alleged that Cena had an inappropriate romantic relationship with AJ Lee while she was Raw general manager, resulting in Cena receiving favors the rest of the locker room didn’t. This accusation led to Nemeth defending his Money in the Bank contract for a second time, as he took on Cena at TLC. The two clashed in the main event in a match that saw both Guerrero and Lee get involved. In the end it was Lee, who pushed Cena off a ladder to allow Nemeth to climb and retain his briefcase, that resulted in the match’s finish. Lee’s heel turn on Cena led to her aligning with Nemeth as his storyline girlfriend. The win marked the first time (including house shows) Nemeth defeated his rival in a singles match.
The two would continue feuding briefly but not much came of it and by 2014, Nemeth was aligning with Cena, taking part in Team Cena – and being the winning sole survivor – at that year’s Survivor Series. Nemeth continued to team with Cena, notably against the Authority, and the two even picked up a major tag team victory at 2014’s Beast in the East. A few days later, Nemeth joined a list of men to answer and ultimately fail, Cena’s US Open Challenge despite playing dirty.
Cena and Nemeth would meet for the last time in 2018, both taking part in a six-pack title match for AJ Styles’ WWE Championship. Back when he was a heel, Cena dropped Nemeth’s name in a promo he cut mocking CM Punk’s pipebomb. This coupled with WWE’s relationship with TNA led to speculation about a final match between John Cena and his former rival. However, it is another name on this list that Nemeth would like to see get a shot against Cena in one of his final dates, tournament result aside.
